German intelligence workers have reluctantly admitted they are running fake accounts on social media and are now unwilling to go into detail about their purpose.
287 such accounts are run by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Brandenburg alone, according to the response to a parliamentary question from the AfD. Party official Hans-Christoph Berndt said this suggests there could be “10,000 such disguised provocateurs” across the whole of Germany, joking that Erich Mielke—the Stasi boss whose tactics earned him the nickname “The Master of Fear”—“is back.”
Czech MEP Tomáš Kubín responded to these reports saying that while the accounts are “presented as a means of ensuring security,” they raise concerns “about the lack of transparency and the possible misuse of these accounts to manipulate public opinion or monitor citizens.”
The AfD’s Fabian Jank also suggested that “supposedly right-wing agitators are actually state-paid agents.”
Heutige Pressekonferenz: Der #Verfassungsschutz betreibt in #Brandenburg 287 sogenannte „Fake-Accounts“ – und will Fragen dazu nicht beantworten.
Die Bürger sollen offenbar nicht erfahren, wie sie auf Facebook, Instagram oder TikTok überwacht werden – oder dass sich hinter… https://t.co/qBq9yL5ObB
In a statement released late last month, the AfD—which is itself accused of being a threat to democracy—said the state government initially refused to provide information on the accounts, citing the “interest of the state.” It is also yet to be established exactly which platforms these are operating on, and whether the accounts run by intelligence agents are pretending to be on the left or the right.
AfD domestic policy spokeswoman Lena Kotré bashed this aversion to openness as “an impermissible curtailment of parliamentary oversight rights.”
As elected representatives, we are obligated to the citizens—they have a right to know the methods used by the Ministry of the Interior.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
